Mercy Otis Warren: Playwright, Historian, and Whistleblower
It may be a mistake, that man, in a state of nature, is more disposed to cruelty than courtesy. Mercy Otis Warren
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Mercy Otis Warren: Playwright, Historian, and Whistleblower
In researching the revolution so many names came up that even with my decades of love of history I had never heard. Mercy Otis is one. Which is surprising given how much she did during and after the revolution and the president’s who held her views in high regard. She not only wrote to presidents )who wrote back) but she published plays, pamphlets, and the first history of the revolution published by and American. Though the presidents admired (or mostly admired) her work she did have some critiques on them. She was anti slavery believing that such horrors were undermining to what the country was based on. She was angry at the treatments of the First Nations people and as you may expect was angered that there was no place for women in the new laws.
Early Life
She was born September 14, 1728 in Massachusetts or Set 7 or sept 25 depending on the research
She had 12 siblings and was the third eldest.
Her exposure to the political world was early. Her father was an attorney and a politician who supported his daughter curiosity and writing.
Though she was not formally educated she had the privilege of wealth and wealth at that time meant books. She spent as much time as she could learning from her brother’s lessons and making use of her uncles library.
She married a Harvard classmate of her brother’s , the politically savvy James Warren who encouraged Mercy’s writing. Her husband became a state legislator and Mercy had a close eye and ear to the political world as she entertained.
Work
Mercy wrote numerous plays that were sort of The House of Cards of her day. They were mostly political dramas. She turned the politics that affected her and her state into art in the hopes of effecting change by her writing since she was not allowed a vote or public office.
in 1788, she issued a pamphlet, Observations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions written under the pseudonym "A Columbian Patriot", that opposed ratification of the document and advocated the inclusion of a Bill of Rights. Observations was long thought to be the work of other writers, most notably Elbridge Gerry. It was not until her descendant, Charles Warren, found a reference to it in a 1787 letter to British historian Catharine Macaulay that Warren was accredited authorship.[2
The Adulator was one of her most explosive plays that called out what she saw as oppressive British rule and foretold the revolution. Though published anonymously it fanned the embers. She the leaked letters proving a powerful man was actually working for the other side.
While she did publish some of her work under her own name (a highly unusual thing at the time) Many of her works were published anonymously or under a make male name. This does make it difficult to truly know the scope of her work.
She had a friendship with future president John Adams and his wife Abigail. Though later when he felt she through shade at him her book on the revolution. Though before during the Boston Tea Party he was quoted as saying
In a letter to James written soon after the Boston Tea Party, Adams declared that he wanted "a poetical Genius," such as Warren, to describe the recent events in Boston harbor.
Warren was critical of the Constitution drafted by the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, which she evaluated in Observations on the New Constitution, a work originally attributed to the Massachusetts Anti-Federalist Elbridge Gerry, although historians now believe that Warren wrote it.12 In this pamphlet, Warren condemned the creation of the strong central government outlined in the Constitution, as well as the lack of explicit protections of the people's liberties or rights.13
Legacy
Mercy Ottis’ most popular work was, History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution Published in 1805.
Bibliography
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mercy-otis-warren
MLA - Michals, Debra. "Mercy Otis Warren." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.
Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Mercy Otis Warren." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mercy-otis-warren.
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/mercy-otis-warren-1728-1814/
